Townsend's terrific trio

The series centres around the adventures of three women who work for the Charles Townsend private detective agency. Beautiful, sassy and spirited, the gals are also masters of disguise, never hesitating to go undercover as nurses, ice-skaters or even clowns to crack their cases (and if they happen to meet some gorgeous men along the way – well, that's just the icing on the cake).

They're assisted by Charlie's right-hand man Bosley, but Charlie himself only ever communicates through a speakerphone. However, contrary to popular belief, the big man does sometimes appear in person, but with his face cunningly hidden. He's a bit of a tease, that Charlie.

Spelling success

Charlie's Angels was the brainchild of Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg, two of the most successful producers in TV history. (And Goldberg was also president of 20th Century Fox for a while.)

Working together, Spelling and Goldberg made some of the most famous serials and TV films of the last few decades – they created Starsky and Hutch, for example, and even launched John Travolta's career by casting him in one of their TV movies. Aaron Spelling, who passed away in 2006, also holds the record as the world's most prolific producer, overseeing everything from Dynasty to Beverly Hills 90210.

Bringing sexy back

Charlie's Angels was the result of a late night chat between Spelling and Goldberg. They were discussing the state of mid-70s TV, and agreed it was just far too grim and gritty. They pondered shows like Baretta (a tough drama about a maverick New York cop) and decided there and then to come up with the polar opposite: something "very glamorous, very pretty and very romantic."

They sketched out an idea about three beautiful private eyes, called it The Alley Cats, and pitched the idea to their studio bosses during a breakfast meeting. Unfortunately, they just didn't get the concept. As Goldberg recalled, their response was "That's the worst idea we have ever heard. Could we please order breakfast?"

Harry's Angels?

Not to be discouraged, Spelling and Goldberg made their next TV movie with the condition that they'd be allowed to produce a separate pilot script of their own. This turned out to be the very first Charlie's Angels episode – and the title was more or less dreamt up by series star Kate Jackson, who was inspired by a picture of three angels hanging in an executive's office. She actually suggested Harry's Angels, but there was already a successful show called Harry-O so they decided to go with Charlie's Angels instead. Which was certainly an improvement over Alley Cats.

The programme debuted in 1976 and was an immediate sensation. In fact, it was the most successful first season of any US show in history – a record that would be kept until ER took the crown almost two decades later.

Two non-blondes

When casting the three original Angels, the producers had in mind one brunette, one redhead and one blonde. The brunette Kate Jackson was the first to be cast (on the strength of her popularity in a previous series called The Rookies), and then Farrah Fawcett-Majors was picked as the blonde. However, the producers' plans went awry when they clapped eyes on Jaclyn Smith and decided she was perfect as the third Angel – despite being a brunette like Kate Jackson. (The fact that Farrah was a conspicuous blonde flanked by two brunettes probably accounted for the special attention she received from men's magazines.)

One woman who didn't make the cut despite auditioning was a young Kim Basinger – although she did appear in the episode Angels in Chains, which saw the girls go undercover at a women's prison. Its camp qualities have made it arguably the most famous episode of all, and Aaron Spelling once joked he could re-run it weekly without the ratings ever going down.

All images © 2007 CPT Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Sony Pictures Television International)